1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of engine oil filters, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for capturing and containing spillable oil during an oil filter removal operation.
Further, the invention relates to a filter housing piercing and integrated oil containment apparatus.
More particularly, this invention relates to a device which is hand attachable with one or more internal piercing elements which create liquid release from within a filter housing thereby transferring the spillable oil through a punctured filter wall to a spill proof temporary boot or container. This oil transfer occurs prior to a final breaking of the seal between the engine and the filter.
2. Background of the Invention
Prior to 1955, filtering of automotive engine oil was accomplished by routing the oil through a series of hoses or pipes and then through a porous (usually paper) element or cartridge contained in a separate cylindrical canister. In 1955, Wix Corporation introduced the one piece "spin-on" disposable oil filter assembly. This easily removable filter apparatus revolutionized the automotive oil filter industry, and soon became standard equipment on virtually every car and light truck. The filter and engine designs quickly became complementary, and, as a result, the spin-on filter has remained in its basic configuration since it's inception.
This original spin-on design became ensconced long before oil was classified as a hazardous waste. It includes a thin-wall continuous outer container to house and surround the paper or porous filter cartridge. A spin-on assembly is mounted on the engine block and is held in place by compression against a deformable gasket.
One popular type of spin-on filter incorporates a female thread within the filter which mates (usually upward) with a male threaded pipe, tube, or insert. This mate threaded tube remains integral with the engine block. Such mating threads during installation squeezed a flat-face O-ring type rubber gasket between the face of the filter housing and a corresponding engine block boss ("flat").
This design, though efficient for physical removal and reinstallation, created a "standpipe" above the filter which was always full of additional captured (or pooled) oil when the engine is at rest. This nominal 1/4 cup of oil for millions and millions of oil changes, must by gravity, always spill once the seal is broken. This spill has occurred continuing at the 1/4 to 1/2 cup level for every oil change since the invention of the spin-on filter. During each oil change, a portion of spilled oil also inevitably tracks down as an oil coating over the engine block where it is subsequently washed off along our roadways.
Spillage of oil during filter removal has been considered by most mechanics to be an unsolvable problem. Attempts at a solution have been to place a large catch pan under the engine. Such catch pans are not satisfactory and inevitably spills takes place. An artisan faced with an oil filter removal, seemingly resigned to his fate, simply takes extra rags and faces the splash and oil drippings as an unchangeable fact of life around engine repair and maintenance centers.
Confounding the problem further, it should be noted that over the last two decades, mileage and emissions priorities have been at the forefront. The associated rules and regulations have greatly multiplied the emission devices and thus have caused automobile and marine manufactures to unduly crowd the designs of engine compartments. As such, the accessibility of the spin-on oil filter has become more and more limited, and hence much more prone to spillage during removal. The mechanic simply does not have room to work during the filter removal/replacement task.
These difficulties of access and environmental hazards are compounded at least a hundred fold in the marine field.
The above stated design issues, coupled with the increased understanding, and awareness of oil as a hazardous material, makes the need for a clean spill proof method and apparatus for oil filter removal, an issue of major importance. Prior to the advent of this invention, a spill proof oil filter removal method and apparatus simply did not exist. This invention for the first time solves a long standing recognized problem that heretofore remained unsolved and thus meets the test of an invention of major importance.